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I have a Dell laptop CPi D300XT that says it can use
Standard memory is one 32-MB memory module (CP) or one 64-MB memory module (CPi). No memory is installed on the system board.
Memory can be increased to 128 MB for the Latitude CP and 256 MB for the Latitude CPi by installing combinations of 16-, 32-, 64-, and 128-MB 3.3-V EDO SODIMM memory modules. NOTE: 128-MB SODIMM memory modules are used only in the Latitude CPi with CPi BIOS A03 or higher.
with the latest bios. I need to upgrade the memory and was wondering if THIS memory would work.
It seems that this laptop is really picky about what ram it can use (which Dell no longer provides). 64 meg isn't cutting it and I would like to max it out at 256mb.
Never mind, the memory in that link won't work. You need EDO SODIMMs, 72-pin, not 144-pin in the link. Tough to find, especially the bigger ones, like 128's.
DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 64, 60N, 8X64, 4K, 144, EXTENDED DATA OUT
I know it's an old laptop, but all I need it for is setting up new routers and checking wi-fi access, when I'm finished with the trim out on the homes I'm working on. I don't need it for much of anything else, and if I can upgrade the memory cheap enough I'll do it.
I already have the wi-fi and nic cards, I would just like for it to be a little more snappy then what it is. A little more ram would be nice to help keep it from hitting the cache on that slow ass hard drive it has.
I can easily pick up a nicely config'ed laptop for under 750ish, under 500 if you want to be cheap.
I got it for free, which is the perfect price for me.
Like I mentioned in my other post, it would barely be used, but I would still like more ram. I just can't justify spending $500 for a laptop when there's other tools that I need right now, and this lappy would still work fine as-is for what I need it for.
I'd put another 64MB stick in there and grab a 5400rpm notebook HD for it. (I'm assuming it's got a 4200 rpm'er in there.) You can get a Samsung 40GB with 8MB cache for $68 at Newegg. That way you're doubling the ram and speeding up the slowest component for the same price as one stick of 128 MB ram.
maroon wrote:I'd put another 64MB stick in there and grab a 5400rpm notebook HD for it. (I'm assuming it's got a 4200 rpm'er in there.) You can get a Samsung 40GB with 8MB cache for $68 at Newegg. That way you're doubling the ram and speeding up the slowest component for the same price as one stick of 128 MB ram.
That actually sounds like a good idea, I'm only running Win98 anyway. I wonder if the bios would recognize that drive size, it only has a 4gig drive in it right now.
Interesting conflict of information when researching your problem. But, from the service tag, it appears you do indeed have 144-pin memory, so this would be the RAM to make it work:
If you install more RAM, you won't need to access your slow hard drive and I'd rather compute in nanoseconds than milliseconds any day. A 5400-RPM hard drive won't be that much faster than the IBM TravelStar 4200-RPM drive that's in there now. Besides, how often would you access your hard drive while checking Wi-Fi or setting up routers? Get one 128MB stick, that will be plenty with your 64MB stick for what you're doing.
He's gonna hit the swap file whether he has 128 or 192 megs of memory. He's still gotta boot the thing up which probably takes a couple of years with the current setup. I think he'll see a good performance increase with the faster HD with 8MB cache. Plus, down the road he can move the HD to another lappy which he can't do with antiquated specialized ram.
ghost wrote:Interesting conflict of information when researching your problem.
Now you see my dilemma, I really appreciate everybody's help on this. Like I mentioned, I don't need super performance out of this lappy, I'm just looking to get a bit more out of it with the "best bang for my buck".
maroon wrote:He's gonna hit the swap file whether he has 128 or 192 megs of memory. He's still gotta boot the thing up which probably takes a couple of years with the current setup. I think he'll see a good performance increase with the faster HD with 8MB cache. Plus, down the road he can move the HD to another lappy which he can't do with antiquated specialized ram.
I disagree with the first sentence. He's running Windows 98, which will happily load and run with 64 MB RAM. If he had 128, he won't touch the swap file, let alone 192MB.
The cache on the HD is only used to cache the most recently-accessed information from the disk. The first time he starts (loads) a program, it's then in RAM (as it is in the disk cache) but is accessed from RAM, not the HD cache.
I do agree, however, that the new HD will help out with disk I/O performance and that's a very good point about moving the drive to another laptop later down the road while the memory then becomes useless. That is, if the new laptop will support two drives.
NOTE: 128-MB SODIMM memory modules are used only in the Latitude CPi with CPi BIOS A03 or higher.
